Life off the grid in the SW Texas desert. An experiment in sustainable living. NUMBERS AT THE END OF EACH BLOG POST: temp at 8PM,high temp,low temp,rainfall,wind conditions(CalmBreezyWindyGusty).

Sunday, March 15, 2009

The Solitario

Low of 39 - High of 78. Took the day off to go a callin'. A friend of mine bought a place out in the Solitario section of Terlingua Ranch....way, way out in the Solitario. He is spending his first week there since the purchase. I found his place on GoogleEarth and plotted the location on my GPS. Did a load of laundry in Study Butte and headed out for a visit. The cheap little GPS I bought at Radio Shack last year is amazing...all the un-named dirt roads were on it and it guided me right to his front door in the exact middle of nowhere - turn by turn directions in a female English accent, no less.

Hung out in the outback for a couple of hours then headed back to the civilization that is The Field Lab. Got home to find a little group of longhorns patiently waiting obediently at the end of my driveway. Snacked them then hung my laundry to dry. "Worshed" my bedding for the first time in 3 weeks so looking forward to a crispy clean sleep tonight. Plenty of sun in the coming days so perhaps a nice hot shower tomorrow afternoon.

about the GPS not working any more. Some of the companies, I found out the harway, don't carry updates after about two years.. Too expensive is their excuse.. I have a Garmin Nuvi and last I checked there were no more map updates.. But I am lost with out mine, no pun intended. :-)

Get a good topo map and park your gps. Drive around a bit and get familiar with the roads. If you're on any kind of traveled road and headed in the direction you want to go, it becomes almost impossible to get lost. Apache Trading Post in Alpine has the topos for all the country around the Big Bend. Of course, if you can't read a topo map then please disregard all of the above.